Is there a future in the cards?

Once upon a time, there was a thrill of riding bikes to the corner drug store, buying packs of wax and ripping them open in the parking lot. Many children were on the hunt for the Donruss Ken Griffey Jr. Rookie Card — and despite buying a hundred or more packs, the chase would end up fruitless.     

Collectors from the past will often share memories of how baseball cards were a staple of their childhood. Whether it was Mickey Mantle’s rookie card or a Wayne Gretzky with a stale piece of gum stuck to it, the cards bring back memories. But twenty-first century kids have other things on their minds.  

“If we don’t see a rise of young kids buying cards, this hobby will die within 10 years,” said a worried Robert Sumner.  

During the first three years of the 1990s, when the baseball trading card industry was at its hottest, it generated more than $1 billion annually. By 2017, that number fell to a chilly $200 million.  

Sumner previously owned a sports card shop. He enjoyed many successful years selling cards to people of all ages. But there was one thing that stood out behind his decision to close his shop doors.  

“The internet and greed killed the hobby,” said Sumner. “Places like eBay killed their local hobby stores because it was so cheap. As a store owner, it’s hard to get a 30 per cent markup on what we buy versus what you would buy on eBay because then it makes it way too expensive for children. How are we supposed to compete with that?”   

Jeremy Renaud first started collecting as a kid. He would often spend his Canadian summers playing road hockey and admiring the great players of his era such as Wayne Gretzky and Bobby Orr.  

“Back in the day, we’d grab our homemade nets, we’d get our sticks, we would go down the street or in our own driveway and we’d play with people all day and night. And then we might eat,” said Renaud. “Then we might scrounge for money, and we might go to the corner store and buy cards. It was just that our passion for the sport and our love for hockey just kept going and going. To us, collecting was fantastic.”  

As with many non-digital commercial trends, card collecting started to wane around the 90s. That decade’s cards aren’t worth much largely due to card companies overprinting. When demand for cards increased during that time, so did supply. The card companies viewed it as easy money. But as supply increased to ridiculous levels and demand started to fall, the bottom fell out of the market. The chase for Ken Griffey Jr. rookie cards no longer brought a big enough thrill to go to the store. The search for the next superstar became easier to find within every pack. Thus, the value of cards dropped, and kids were now left with boxes of cards. Mothers shoved these cards in big cardboard boxes, where they’d sit and gather dust for the next 25 years. This is known as the junk wax era – an era the sports cards industry is still trying to overcome.   

The sports card industry has had to adapt to the times. There’s a new target audience in town, making the hobby too expensive for children.  

The price of cards are currently skyrocketing. This is largely due to the popularity of players. Whether it be the latest Chicago Bulls documentary highlighting the legacy of Michael Jordan or the Sunday Night prime time NFL matchup, players are constantly in the spotlight. Sport card collectors can now pull game- worn jersey cards, autographs and much more from almost any given pack. Long gone are the days where cards are thrown against walls or stuck in the wheels of bicycles to sound cool. Today’s cards are commodities to buy, sell or trade — and prices prove it.  

The introduction of serial numbered cards has built scarcity into card issues, guaranteeing that print runs are limited. In fact, some card brands, such as National Treasures, Flawless and Immaculate, every card is serial numbered. While they are very expensive to buy, the card prices hold their value because they are protected from overprinting.  

“Whoever tells you the hobby is dying, look him in the face and laugh at him because the hobby is not dying,” said the owner of F&C House of Cards, Frank Safou.  

Safou will be celebrating his first year as a card shop owner at the end of April. However, he’s been collecting, trading and selling sport cards for more than 25 years. From the “junk wax” days to pulling cards as rare as $6,000, Safou has seen it all.   

Despite Sumner not thinking the hobby has what it takes to survive the growing prices of the market, Safou remains optimistic.   

The largest sports card manufacturer in the world, Topps, has recently committed to making the hobby accessible to people of all ages. Topps offers a wide range of products at the entry level, such as 99 cents for the Opening Day product. The company also offers products such as Transcendent at the higher end that retail for $26,000 a box.  

Safou believes because of the wide range of products, kids will continue to collect.  In fact, he believes they will save the hobby.  

“When I see kids walk in, I pay more attention to what they want,” said Safou. “I make sure I answer every question. I like to see my hobby grow and survive, but as a store owner, this is the customer of the future.”  

While getting kids off their iPads, video games and screens and into their local card shops can be a daunting task, it’s an important one. And Safou isn’t in for the ride alone.   

Renaud’s love and passion for the hobby has led him to an interesting role. A role where he can have a direct impact on growing the sports card hobby. Something he claims is important for its survival.  

He has recently been named the General Manager of Canada’s largest Sports Memorabilia and Trading Card Expo. Among his long list of duties, including being responsible for planning and organizing the Expo, Renaud is in constant communication with some of the hobby’s biggest manufacturers.  

Much like Safou and Sumner, Renaud also realizes the importance of getting kids into the hobby.   

“We’ve become a generation that has no long term collecting development program,” said Renaud “So it’s how do we have people that enter the industry and they carry on through the industry and they become collectors for life?”  

Renaud said the Expo does many things in hopes to get families, kids and a younger generation interested in attending the hobby. Each year, with help from sponsor Ultrapro, kids can participate in “my first break”. The kids are given free swag and cards to open for their very first time.  

Renaud is also a fan of National Hockey Card Day. It’s a day where anyone can go to their local card shop and obtain a free pack of cards. He said events like that are a great way to get into the industry at a grassroots level. He believes what will help save the hobby is growing a new generation of collectors who appreciate the cards for what they’re worth, much like in the past.  

“We’ve gone from an industry that collects cards and appreciates the cards for what they are based on the athlete or the team, to an industry that is more focused on the value of the card,” said Renaud. “We need to appreciate the industry that way rather than thinking right away cards are based on value and perceived value.”  

 Renaud added the Expo also strives to find more ways to grow programs for families and women. While he couldn’t unveil the details in full, Renaud believes changes coming to Expo will surely lead to a growth in the sports card industry.  

“That’s what excites me most. We’re going to introduce a whole new market of people to the industry,” said Renaud. “That’s what I’m hoping at least as a start, will get people exposed to just collecting sports cards.”  

While Renaud is working year-round coming up with creative ways to get a younger generation into the hobby, he still believes there’s one method from his childhood that still works best today.  

“I think it’s trying to find a way to have kids go back to just taking their bike down the street to collect cards,” said Renaud. “Getting them out of the house and getting them to the store. Let them discover the love of the hobby.”  

Flipping through his warped, dented and well-loved 1984 Wayne Gretzky sticker book, Renaud cherishes the memory of spending an entire summer doing household chores, trading with friends and biking to the local store to complete his book.   

“It’s maybe worth five bucks,” said Renaud. “But to me, it’s priceless — it’s a memory because a lot of work went into collecting this.”  

Ironically, the same internet may also save the card industry. Information on cards is now available within seconds and you can now collect dozens of variations of your favourite players sports cards.  

 Every day, collectors from the past are rediscovering the hobby.  People are exploring their basements and attics in hoping to find lost treasure. And whether or not they come up empty handed, one thing is for sure –there’s still a future in the cards. 

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